On the contrary, it can be shown that the invention of a great labor saving, rapid-producing machine is, upon the whole, the greatest triumph of the human mind and that nearly all among such machines are invented, made, operated, kept in order and improved by the laborer.
Masters may be more cunning than slaves, but cunningness is not an evidence of a high order of intellectual power. Many of the lower animals are quite the equals, if not indeed the superiors, of capitalists in this quality, but no animal is the equal of any man, not to speak of the exceptionally skilled laborer, in the power to produce efficient machines for the production and distribution of the necessities of life.
Romanism began its career as a child of the feudal system for the production and distribution of commodities for the profit of the owners of the land and the means for its cultivation. The mission to which it was born was the a.s.sistance of its father, feudalism, in robbing and enslaving the workers who tilled the soil, and never did a servant more faithfully or efficiently perform a task during a longer period.
Protestantism began its career as a child of the capitalistic system for the production and distribution of commodities for the profit of the owners of the means and machines for their manufacturing. The mission to which it was born was the a.s.sistance of its father, capitalism, in robbing and enslaving the workers, who make and operate the machines, and never did a servant more faithfully and efficiently perform a task in a larger or more fruitful field.
Hitherto all systems of economics have had the same soul, compet.i.tion; and, because of it, every one among them has been a diabolical trinity of which lying is the father; robbing is the son, who proceeds from the father; and murder is the spirit, who proceeds from the father and the son.
Labor, "the certain man" of every nation, is half dead lying in the ditch by the wayside, despoiled and wounded, the victim of capitalism, the greatest liar, robber and murderer of all the ages.
The church is the archangel or prime minister through which this Beelzebub, capitalism, has done most of his lying, though within the last hundred years the business has become so great that the office of coadjutor to this archangel was created, and the press appointed to it.
The state is the archangel or prime minister through which this prince of devils, capitalism, has done most of his robbing and killing, though the church has often taken a helpful hand in these departments of the devil"s work, the great work of converting earth into a h.e.l.l.
Nearly all of the backwardness of the world and more than half of its unnecessary sufferings have been due to efforts to prevent changes in religion and politics. Our nation is pa.s.sing through the darkest period of its history because of such efforts on the part of the powers which be in the state, and they are supported by those in the church.
Speaking of the change with which we are here especially concerned, the one involved in the supplanting of an old economic system by a new, there have been several revolutions due to such changes, and another is inevitable and imminent.
When an economic system fails, as the capitalistic one is failing, to feed, clothe and house the workers of the world who produce all foods, clothes and houses, the time when it must give place to another is manifestly near at hand.
Capitalism is failing in this, the only legitimate mission of an economic system. It has indeed over-supplied the needs of about one in ten, but in doing this it has shown partiality, for the remaining nine are left more or less foodless, clotheless and houseless, and this notwithstanding they have done all the feeding, clothing and housing.
Those favored by the system will not be able to prevent its overthrow by those who are wronged.
With our materials, factories, railroads and skill, all should have enough and to spare of every necessity, but so far is this from being the case that millions are insufficiently fed, clothed, housed and warmed, and are doomed to a perpetual and exhaustive drudgery which leaves neither leisure nor energy for the cultivation of their soul life.
The economical and statistical experts of our government"s Department of Labor represent that the bare necessities of a comfortable and efficient life for a family of five require an annual income of $1,500, and that the simple luxuries, which are next to being indispensable, require an additional $1,000, in all $2,500, per year.
How many American families of five have even the smaller of these sums at their disposal? The overwhelming majority have less than $1,000. Let us be honest with the peoples of other nations by ceasing to speak of our country as "the land of plenty and the home of the free," until there is a great change for the better.
Wage slavery may be prolonged by a military coercion but it cannot have a successor in any other form of human slavery. Military coercion prolonged chattel slavery, and by so doing brought what is known as the dark ages upon the world. If wage slavery is to be prolonged by military coercion the world must pa.s.s through a second dark age. The league of nations is fixing for this; but let us hope that this coalition will not stand and that wage slavery will soon be followed by machine slavery, the form of slavery which will end human slavery; not until then shall we have peace on earth and good will among men.
Then they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Do you not now see with me that the christ of the world is not a conscious, personal G.o.d, but an unconscious, impersonal machine? It is the machine of man, not a lamb of G.o.d, to which we may hopefully look for the taking away of the sins of the world.
Ignorance is the great misfortune of the world, its devil, and slavery is his h.e.l.l. The machine is the redeemer who shall save man from this devil and h.e.l.l.
Yes, strange, even blasphemous, as the representation may seem, it is nevertheless true, the machine is the only name given under heaven whereby the world can be saved.
Civilization is salvation. The civilization which is salvation depends on leisure and it on slavery, but so long as leisure is dependent upon the slavery of man, civilization must be limited to a diminishing few.
Marxian socialism is a movement towards the equalization and universalization of leisure by doing away with the master and slave cla.s.ses, through transference of slavery from man to machine.
If there is any truth in my naturalistic representation about the dependence of morality upon a system for the production of the necessities of life, there is none in the supernaturalistic one, which makes it dependent on any among the G.o.ds; and, what is true of the realm of morality is equally so of the realm of history, and this whether it be the history of the universe in general or man in particular.
Lavoisier and Mayer showed that no G.o.d (Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha) created the universe out of nothing, for the matter and force which enter into its const.i.tution are eternalities and universalities.
Kant and Laplace showed that the earth and the heavenly bodies were not created by any G.o.d at all, but evolved from gaseous nebulae.
Kepler and Newton showed that these bodies were not governed in their motions by a G.o.d but by the law of gravitation.
Darwin and Wallace showed that the species of animal and vegetable life were not created by any among the G.o.ds, but evolved from a common protoplasm.
Marx and Engels showed that man"s career has not been determined by any among the G.o.ds, but by his systems for producing and distributing the necessities of life.
These ten men are the greatest teachers the world has had, and this is the sum of all their great teachings: The universe is self-existing, self-sustaining and self-governing, having all the potentialities of its own life within itself, and what is true of it in general is equally so of all the phenomena which enter into its const.i.tution, including man; who, though he is the highest among them, is only a phenomenon, on a level with all the rest, not excepting the lowest. A microbe and a man are on the same footing, both as to their origin and destiny, and as to their having within themselves all power which is available for making the most of their respective lives.
"We are part Of every rock and bird and beast and hill, One with the things that prey on us, And one with what we kill."
Darwinism and Marxism const.i.tute one gospel, the only true, comprehensive and sufficient gospel which the world has ever had or can have, and there is no hope for the future of mankind except in it. If it fails the world is lost, but it shall not and indeed cannot fail, for its words are so many acts or facts of nature.
There is no fact which is not such an act, and every such fact is a part of the one only law upon the knowing and doing of which terrestrial life and its happiness are wholly and solely dependent.
Yes, life, long life, happy life, all there is of such human life, or divine life, (if there be any), depends entirely upon a knowledge of and conformity to this law which is the doing of nature, and not at all upon any law which is the willing of a G.o.d, if indeed there is such a law.
Neither the religion nor the politics which enters into the const.i.tution of Marxian or proletarian socialism is at all concerned about the heaven above or the h.e.l.l below the earth, if there are such places: but the concern of both is wholly to ring out a h.e.l.l from the earth and to ring in a heaven upon it.
Nor have the religion and politics which const.i.tute this socialism the least concern about the service of a celestial divinity (Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha or any other) by doing his will; but both are much concerned with the service of humanity, which consists in rightly learning, interpreting and using the laws of nature, wholly for the purpose of making the terrestrial lives of men, women and children as long and happy as possible, and with absolutely no reference to any celestial life which may be either above or below the earth.
Religion and politics are the complementary and inseparable halves of the social sphere, religion being its idealism and politics its practicalism.
Religious idealism is a social soul of which the church should be the embodiment.
Political practicalism is a social soul of which the state should be the embodiment.
Contrary to the representations of orthodox Christianism it is impossible for any soul to exist without an embodiment.
In truth the body produces the soul, not the soul the body. We must have the church and state in order that we may have their souls, idealism and practicalism.
Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside And naked on the Air of Heaven ride, Were"t not a Shame--were"t not a Shame for him In this clay carca.s.s crippled to abide?
--Omar.
IV.
The church and the state are on the same level as to their origin and importance. Both are human inst.i.tutions and each is indispensable to the other. It is not at all desirable or possible to rid the world of either, but it is absolutely necessary that both should be revolutionized, the church by having its bible and creed rewritten or at least reinterpreted, on the basis of truth as it is revealed by nature, and the state by having its inst.i.tutions reorganized on the basis of service to all instead of only to those of a small cla.s.s, the owner or master cla.s.s.
All the idealistic aims of churches and all the practical undertakings of states should be directly concerned with the answer to three questions: (1) the question as to how to reach the goal where terrestrial life shall in the case of each man, woman and child be as long and happy as it is within the range of possibilities to make it, by the fullest of attainable knowledge concerning the laws of nature; (2) the question as to how to make the most successful endeavor universally to disseminate such knowledge, and (3) the question as to how resistlessly to persuade to the living of it.
These are the only concerns and aims of Marxian socialism and they cannot be promoted or even avowed by Christian socialists.
The great crime of the ages is the robbing of the producer of the basic necessities of human life by the non-producer.
Capitalism is the robber, and the politics and religion of the old states and churches are the right and left hands by which he has been and is doing the robbing.
Marxian socialism is an undertaking which has for its task the overthrow of the system which makes it possible for those who produce nothing to live surfeitingly, and renders it necessary for those who produce everything to live starvingly.